Picture This

Sometimes I still watch the Golden Girls on their reruns.  One of the favorite characters in this series was Dorothy's mother.   She always had a story about her younger days and she always began her story with "picture this".

Today this is how I am going to begin my story.  I put a picture of Sky's on Fire first and then the picture of WOF Dock's Velvet.  This week we have been breeding Sky to Velvet.  I have put his and her colors in to  the color coat calculator to determine what color we might get from this breeding.  The main colors we can get is red chocolate, red chocolate roan, bay roan and bay.  There is also a chance, very small chance, of blue roan.  We are excited , of course, to see what this breeding will bring.  So this week I am trying to "picture this" new foal that will be born this time next year and what it will look like.

Pictured with Velvet is this year's foal born late October.  Her name is WOF's Lady Liberty.  She is by RHF Benjamin Franklin.   Ben is a beautiful black stallion owned by Van Bert Farms.  It turned out to be a very good cross.  She has a beautiful head.  He neck fits very nicely into her shoulders and her back end matches the rest of her body.  I think she is a nicely put together filly.

Speaking of blessing from God.  I have a favorite scripture.  It is Romans 8:28 and it says, "For I know all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and who are called according to His purpose."  That does not say that everything is always going to go perfect for us.  It says that whatever happens, God will use for our good.  In that light, I am thinking of the new stallion prospect I bought last year.  I thought the stallion prospect, Black Jack was going to be the black stallion I would use for breeding my own mares.  He is absolutely beautiful and really put together nicely.  

Things happen and we decided to buy another black stallion prospect.  I liked him and I could see he was even better than Black Jack.  He is a younger horse.  Right now he is 18 months old and way too young to use to breed and certainly too young to put a rider on him to get him certified.  So it will be several more years before he is a breeding stallion but God sure blessed our farm with this stallion.  

The first picture in these three is Black Jack.  The second and third is of his half sibling, Ace's Pacifico.  Not a terribly good picture of Pacifico.  This picture makes him look high in the rear but he was standing on uneven ground.  The concrete was slanted to facilitate drainage.  

Since these pictures was taken back in October he has put on weight and his neck has gotten thicker and he is really taking on the look of a stallion.  So exciting things are happening here on Whispering Oaks Farm.  We are involved in a breeding program that will be of benefit to our registered  Rocky Mountain Horses as well as those bred that will go into the KMSHA registry.  There would be no point in breeding to just have foals on the ground just because we like foals.  And I do love the foals we have.

  I love the spring time when we go to the field and find new baby calves and have new foals.  It is exciting to see the new life springing up all around.

It is the way God has of telling us that He believes in His creation.  The grass springs forth out of the brown earth.  Cows start to put their young on the ground.  We see deer with their fawns.  Dogs with new puppies and cats with a new litter of kittens.   Occasionally we will see a coyote and her litter of pups.  We catch an occasional glimpse of a baby bunny or a female coon with her young.  In the farm stores, I hear the cheerful sounds of baby chicks and ducks.  

All of it tells us that life is being renewed everywhere.

Right now we are coming upon winter.  In fact it feels like winter here today.  The grass has turned brown from the cold that has brought frost.  The horses and cows are putting on longer hair to help them survive the bitter cold that is bound to come.  The hay stacks are piled high with the hay that will bring the horses and cows through the long cold winter.  The winter that we know will  pass and usher in spring.

  This time of the year reminds me that winter will soon come to our lives as well.   As I get older, I am reminded every day that my life is coming to a close.  It could be years from now but no one knows the day or hour of their own death.  But like life on the farm I know even after death there will be a glorious spring.  A spring that I can't imagine for the eye has not seen nor the ear has heard the glory of heaven.  I am just on a journey here on this earth for heaven is my true home.  

I think of the times when I am away from home.  Bill and I traveled to Germany, Italy and France when our sons were stationed overseas.  They were all lovely trips.  I go to horse shows now and stay in nice motels with clean (I hope) rooms and beds that are made up for me every morning.  Fresh towels hang in the bathroom and any thing we have left out of place is put in order but yet I am so happy to get home.  It is my home.  Heaven is my real home and  I sometimes think of the day when I will be home again.

Some say there is no God and no after life.  I am sorry for them.  I saw a picture of an basketball player with tatoos all over his arms and I guess anywhere else a tatoo could be placed.   He said it was his identity.  It is who he is.  That is really sad.  I don't have a tatoo nor will I ever get one.  I know who I am without it.  I am a child of God.  That is my identity.  I am not just Mary Lipginski mother of........, widow of......., daughter of......., sister of .............  My real identity is  child of God.  My Jesus died so that I can someday go to my home in heaven.  That is who I am.

God bless each of you who read my blogs and happy trails to you.  And may you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Mary Lipginski

Proverbs 1:7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction.  

In Psalms it says that a fool has said in his heart that there is no God.